Speaking at yesterday's D11 conference, Cook said that, in Apple's previous fiscal year, it purchased a new company every two to three months. Picking up the pace, Apple has already purchased nine companies in its current fiscal year, which began in October.

While Cook didn't disclose which companies those nine were, he said that Apple plans to continuing acquiring more companies. "I think, if anything, we would do more of that in the future," he said.

When asked about what would happen if Apple purchased a company that is so big that it couldn't be kept secret, Cooks said: "We're not currently looking at a big one, but we're not opposed to doing that, if it makes sense."

Cook did note, however, that Apple didn't bid on Waze, the social-mapping and navigation service that Google and Facebook are thought to be at bidding war over, with the buy-in starting at around $1 billion.